Highly recommended: Thinking Spatially Using GIS by Eileen J. Napoleon & Erin A. Brook
Thinking Spatially Using GISis a great place to start. Early exposure to geography, spatial thinking, and geographic information systems (GIS) helps students gain an understanding of the world around them. This work helps students improve their basic map-reading skills and extend those skills by analyzing and thinking critically about the data. Thinking Spatially Using GIS contains teacher materials, lesson plans, a resource CD with exercises, and ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education software.
The book is available through ESRI, Amazon and other fine bookstores.
Eileen J. Napoleon: After receiving her master's degree in geography, Eileen J. Napoleon went to work as a geographer, first for the U.S. Forest Service, and later for ESRI, where she has worked in GIS education for the last 15 years.
Erin A. Brook: After graduating with a degree in geography and GIS, Erin A. Brook spent five years working for ESRI Canada Limited as the K-12 industry manager. While there, she helped market and develop ESRI's education programs for students in kindergarten through grade 12.
Teachers with no GIS background can easily complete the lessons in this book. Each step includes clear instructions accompanied by screen captures. The four main themes of the book are (1) Location, (2) Classification, (3) Movement & Patterns, and (4) Change Over Space & Time. The lessons are aligned to National Geography, Science and Technology Standards.
You will probably find this book a bit easier to follow than the AEJEE Help Menu Lessons mentioned below.
ESRI Education Community
"ArcLessons is a resource for you to share lessons for using GIS in the classroom. You can browse a list of lessons by category or use the search tools to find lessons in your area of interest. You also can contribute your Lessons or LessonPaks to ArcLessons for other educators to use.
The Lessons on ArcLessons have been created by teachers for use in the classroom. If you have questions about any of the Lessons, please contact the author. ESRI does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or reliability of the lessons and recommends you review them before use." (ESRI)
National Center for Rural Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Education Outreach Geospatial Technology
This collection of lessons is designed to introduce and use GIS as a tool for middle school science and mathematics. These classroom-tested activities combine fundamental content with cutting-edge technology and help students see the power of spatial thinking in analysis and decision-making. The collection is authored by Ms. Barbaree Ash Duke and edited by Dr. Bob Kolvoord. Please e-mail Bob Kolvoord with questions/suggestions. Download an overview for a timeline for classroom use.
Lessons: Diseases, World Piracy, Cabela's Activity, World Demographics, Disasters, Energy, Drinking Water, Watersheds, Carbon Footprint, Bats int the Neighborhood, Survivor Agriculture, Farm Economics, Invasive Species of Plants and Animals.
Online resources for these lessons. After downloading these fantastic lessons, you can find wonderful resources such as links to great websites that will supplement the units.
AEJEE Help Menu Lessons
Most teachers have little or no experience with GIS, so how do we begin teaching it? If you are short on funds and cannot purchase the book mentioned above, try the lessons found in the AEJEE "Help" menu. When you click on "Help", a pdf file will open. There are several lessons. The instructions include screen captures for every step along the way.
A teacher who has never used ArcExplorer should do the lessons first before asking students to complete the lessons.
Menu Bar and Tools (pages 5-6)
These screen shots will come in handy for your students as they learn how to use the Menu bar and the Tools in ArcExplorer.
Lesson 1: Getting Started: (pages 9-16) The basics of ArcExplorer, how to use the menu bar and tools, zooming, panning, turn on layers. Self-directed students could complete this lesson in pairs with some teacher assistance. ......
Lesson 2: Getting Started cont'd: (pages 17-24) This lesson looks at layer properties, how to label features, and culminates with instructions on how to create a map of median age by county. ..
Lesson 3: Map Projections: (pages 25-32) This lesson helps students understand the various ways of looking at map projections. The lesson project is to export a map to a layout view, add a legend, the map scale and a compass rose. Students will print their first layout. .....
Lesson 4:Integrating image data (pages 33-40). This lesson shows the Washington DC region. The directions show how to add data, hot links, and create a 1/2 mile buffer around the White House. This lesson takes a fair amount of time. ..
Lesson 5: Scale dependency. Getting data from online servers. (pages 41-46). This lesson shows how to scale data when getting it from sources which use different types of projections. You will also access an online server to get precipitation data. Fun lesson! Takes a bit of time, but worth the effort.
.....
Where Do I Begin?
Books:
Highly recommended: Thinking Spatially Using GIS by Eileen J. Napoleon & Erin A. Brook
Thinking Spatially Using GIS contains teacher materials, lesson plans, a resource CD with exercises, and ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education software.
The book is available through ESRI, Amazon and other fine bookstores.
Print and online resources for the book can be found here:
http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=136&moduleID=27#general
About the Authors
Eileen J. Napoleon: After receiving her master's degree in geography, Eileen J. Napoleon went to work as a geographer, first for the U.S. Forest Service, and later for ESRI, where she has worked in GIS education for the last 15 years.Erin A. Brook: After graduating with a degree in geography and GIS, Erin A. Brook spent five years working for ESRI Canada Limited as the K-12 industry manager. While there, she helped market and develop ESRI's education programs for students in kindergarten through grade 12.
You will probably find this book a bit easier to follow than the AEJEE Help Menu Lessons mentioned below.
ESRI Education Community
"ArcLessons is a resource for you to share lessons for using GIS in the classroom. You can browse a list of lessons by category or use the search tools to find lessons in your area of interest. You also can contribute your Lessons or LessonPaks to ArcLessons for other educators to use.The Lessons on ArcLessons have been created by teachers for use in the classroom. If you have questions about any of the Lessons, please contact the author. ESRI does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or reliability of the lessons and recommends you review them before use." (ESRI)
http://edcommunity.esri.com/arclessons/arclessons.cfmHere is a list of AEJEE lessons on the ESRI site on an Excel spreadsheet. You can sort the document by topic and level.:
James Madison University
National Center for Rural Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Education Outreach Geospatial TechnologyThis collection of lessons is designed to introduce and use GIS as a tool for middle school science and mathematics. These classroom-tested activities combine fundamental content with cutting-edge technology and help students see the power of spatial thinking in analysis and decision-making. The collection is authored by Ms. Barbaree Ash Duke and edited by Dr. Bob Kolvoord. Please e-mail Bob Kolvoord with questions/suggestions. Download an overview for a timeline for classroom use.
Lessons: Diseases, World Piracy, Cabela's Activity, World Demographics, Disasters, Energy, Drinking Water, Watersheds, Carbon Footprint, Bats int the Neighborhood, Survivor Agriculture, Farm Economics, Invasive Species of Plants and Animals.
Online resources for these lessons. After downloading these fantastic lessons, you can find wonderful resources such as links to great websites that will supplement the units.
AEJEE Help Menu Lessons
These screen shots will come in handy for your students as they learn how to use the Menu bar and the Tools in ArcExplorer.
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